Catching bait and having fun...

On Sunday 19^th April, At, Tammy and I launched “AVANTI” off Richards Bay. We wanted to catch some bait for the next few weeks. After stopping at the pipeline and catching maasbanker and redeyes, we headed deeper and found a few mackerel. With the bait box looking good, we headed to the ledge to look for some bonnies.

I put out a few daisy chains and trolled over the reef. All five rode went away on small yellowfins. While we each fought fish, the other rods in the holders got slack line and the fish pulled hook. At had his fish at the boat when it turned around and took off. Seconds later a small black marlin stuck its head out the water! The conversion did not last too long before the leader parted. I managed to bring in one small yellowfin.

On the next few turns, we found some kawakawa. There was a good showing on the reef so we stopped to drift over it. Tammy and I each hooked a live maasbanker on and let them down to the showing. Both of us went on. Tammy pulled the hook while I fought a big kawakawa to the boat. It was around 9kg. On the next 3 drifts, we had a few pulls and caught more big bonnies. It was now 1:30pm so we decided to head for Petingo and try for a cuda in the afternoon.

On arrival, I let out 5 lines with livies and bonnies. It did not take long for a pull. The surface livie went away at a medium pace but the line angle then went deep. Tammy fought the fish for a while before it went on a run. It all suddenly ended with the leader being cut off. Not sure what happened there. Trolling continued and a while later the surface livie went away again. I took the rod while the other lines were moved out the way. We had just settled when the surface bonnie was eaten and the reel took off. Unfortunately the hooks pulled quite quickly. I continued to fight and soon had a 12kg cuda in the hatch. It was getting late so we made one last turn over the wreck and had a blacktip shark eat a bonnie before jumping and breaking off. That signalled the end of the day and we headed home with a few baits for the next  few trips.